Micro Uploading: Sub-national Interests and Supranational Institutions

Abstract

The two previous chapters in this part have primarily dealt with macro uploading and downloading. This chapter deals with micro uploading in the form of interest group intermediation and other sub-national actors. A number of commentators have provided analyses of the formation and development of sub-national interests at the European level and their interaction with the European policymaking institutions (Grant, 1995; Kirchner, 1980; Lieber, 1974; Mazey and Richardson, 1993, 1996; Sidjanski, 1970). Sidjanski (1970) proposed that interest groupings established themselves at the European level because they recognized a new policy-making centre. As the European Union (EU) began to affect certain interests, organizations congregated around the new institutions ‘sometimes …prompted by invitation or even pressure from the Commission’ (p. 402). Mazey and Richardson (1996) identified interest group/European Commission interaction and provided clear evidence that consultation and lobbying are prolific. Furthermore, there have been numerous studies of sector specific sub-national interests and their interactions with EU policy-making institutions (Camerra-Rowe, 1996; Coen, 1997, 1998; Greenwood, 1995, 1997; Greenwood and Cram, 1996; Greenwood et al., 1992; Mazey and Richardson, 1996; McLaughlin, 1995; McLaughlin and Greenwood, 1995; McLaughlin et al., 1993).